Homemade Student Planner

I searched and searched for the perfect planner. Or at least, for the planner that I had in my head. And I just couldn't find it. So I decided to create my own student planner for my eldest two princesses. Here's what I did:

 

Had to stick with a patriotic theme.  It's one of my favorites.

The first page lists her computer information for sites she needs for school.  It lists the daily meeting agenda we will follow.  I found some neat plastic dividers with folders on each side.

The first section is an annual calendar and monthly calendars that are specific to our schedule.  I got these from The Old Schoolhouse Planner.  I bought the e-book version that is editable.  Yet even with all the choices, I still had to create my own pages!

The next section has our individual lesson plans to schedule from.  I still use HST+ to schedule from.  But because my goal, which is described in the Tapestry of Grace curriculum, is that they will be able to schedule their own work, I am trying something new this first quarter.  I printed out the list of assignments that they have for the first quarter.  They can decide how much of each subject to schedule each week.  They can follow my suggestion which will give them an even amount of work each week, or they can go hog wild with one subject and finish the quarter's assignments in four weeks and have five weeks off if they so desire!  As I said, it's an experiment - so I'll let you know how that goes.

The next section has the pages they will use to fill in their schedule.  Each page is individualized to what they will be using this year.  Our week begins on Friday, and I included a column for the weekend in case they decide to schedule some work on the weekend.  (I know, I know - a homeschool mom can dream, can't she?)

The next section is for their Grammar program to check off the sentences as they complete them and correct them.

The last section is an informational section that I thought might be helpful to them.  It is again from The Old Schoolhouse Planner.

They are actually quite excited to begin using these.  This will be a second year for Princess E in having her own planner and scheduling her own work.  Princess S will be learning this skill this year.  My prayer is that it will help them both to be a bit more organized, and that I will be able to focus more time on my younger students as a result.